Kindle Voyage - First Impressions

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by xendula

My second KV replacement should be here any minute now!!!

Yay! Fingers crossed!

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by jswinden

ETA: And best of all, it doesn't look like my cat peed on it!

Welll put! That's why I'm on the hunt for a "whiter" PW2. I do love it, just not the "cat pee" color.

Like the Voyage, it has a tendency to look better in some light than others.

[speedlever]

Every time I think I've decided to wait for my KV, I think that the PW2 will very adequately serve my needs... and for a lot less money.

Since the KV does not appear to be a stellar upgrade over the PW2, I just cancelled my KV order and ordered the PW2 and a Fintie folio case. I listed the cost as being the reason for cancellation (since Amazon asks for a reason).

I'll have to return the case when it arrives. Oh well.

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by speedlever

Every time I think I've decided to wait for my KV, I think that the PW2 will very adequately serve my needs... and for a lot less money.

Since the KV does not appear to be a stellar upgrade over the PW2, I just cancelled my KV order and ordered the PW2 and a Fintie folio case. I listed the cost as being the reason for cancellation (since Amazon asks for a reason).

I'll have to return the case when it arrives. Oh well.

I have to admit, the cost factored into my decision. I felt like the KV wasn't the right ereader for me ATM, and the cost plus the warts made it an easier decision.

[xendula]

Soo, I got my second replacement today, and it is better than the first replacement, and worse than the original I was trying to replace. Yellowish screen. It also FROZE on me after 5 minutes of use, and I have never had a kindle freeze. It also seems more sluggish than the others...

Trying to talk to US based Kindle Escalations
I called for a replacement, asked to talk to Kindle Escalations in the US, was told by the CS rep in India they cannot connect me, so I asked for kindle support, I asked that person to then connect me to kindle escalations in the US, ended up talking to Shawn who claimed to be kindle support and would not let me talk to escalations. I described the issue to him, he kept asking questions, i thought he wrote everything down, then he said he would transfer me to kindle support to get a ticket created.I asked to talk to kindle support in the US, and Sean said he "can't promise" anything. After some more wait time, I ended up back in India with kindle suport, and was asked what the problem was. I about lost it at that point. 39 minutes into and I was back at square one, just a lot more ticked off than before. Anyhow, replacement coming on Thursday, and that will be my last try. I've about had it with this return game. They very obviously know that there are issues, because both Shawn and then the last person I talked to, seemingly had a list of issues in front of them, and found the one that said "very noticeable color difference from top to bottom" and "cream top" while they were talking to me.

Surprise device on doorstep ... 'cause.. Why would you stick in in the very roomy mailbox if you can throw it onto the front steps instead?
Anyhow, later I received another KV. I had originally ordered two, and that one just arrived. It also has the same hue issue and a pinprick pretty much in the center. The others have pinpricks as well, but at least not in the middle of the screen. That second one was supposed to be a present, but finding two KVs with acceptable screen will be near impossible - one is bad enough.

ETA: I just noticed on that one that the bezel does not connect with the frame at the top, and I have a line of light shining through where the "lip" meets the bezel. I imagine this must be uncomfortable when reading in bed, since the line of light would be at eye level.

A few things found out:
1) You can circumvent the lenghty set-up process by restarting the device.
2) It appears that a KV cannot be used without it being registered to your Amazon account, for which it needs to be connected to a Wifi network. After you start it up, if you try to open a book, it will take you back to the setup screen and force you to connect to a Wi-Fi network, and you cannot proceed. No way to cancel out. There is no home button, so no way to get back to the home screen. The only thing you can do is restart. This brings you back to the setup screen with only the option to "Get started". If you are not within a wifi network you can access at least for set-up, you pretty much can't use the KV at all. I believe that's new for kindles?

[sirmaru]

I'm waiting for the Voyage 2015. The 2014 Voyage has problems like the PW 2012 did. The PW 2013 was fine.

It seems the second generation of each of these new models solve all the bugs of the first generation. It was the same with the Fire HDX surpassing the original Fire as well.

I had problems with the Fire TV 2014 and sent it back. I'll be buying the Fire TV 2015 next year if I live that long. At my age every year is conjecture.

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by xendula

A few things found out:
1) You can circumvent the lenghty set-up process by restarting the device.
2) It appears that a KV cannot be used without it being registered

Sorry to hear your second one sucks, too. I also noticed those two things. The registration thing kind of ticked me off.

Originally Posted by sirmaru

At my age every year is conjecture.

I agree on both counts, waiting for the 2nd gen, and most especially about "conjecture".

[Drew0020]

I went to Best Buy to try another. 2 bright pinholes. Couldn't see about the screen hue issues because I opened it in store (very bright lights) and returned it on the spot.

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by Drew0020

I went to Best Buy to try another. 2 bright pinholes. Couldn't see about the screen hue issues because I opened it in store (very bright lights) and returned it on the spot.

Wow. I'll bet Amazon's spinning in circles over this. I get the feeling that the CS folks are starting to lose their pinned-on smiles, too.

Originally Posted by xendula

Soo, I got my second replacement today, and it is better than the first replacement, and worse than the original I was trying to replace. Yellowish screen. It also FROZE on me after 5 minutes of use, and I have never had a kindle freeze. It also seems more sluggish than the others...

Trying to talk to US based Kindle Escalations
I called for a replacement, asked to talk to Kindle Escalations in the US, was told by the CS rep in India they cannot connect me, so I asked for kindle support, I asked that person to then connect me to kindle escalations in the US, ended up talking to Shawn who claimed to be kindle support and would not let me talk to escalations. I described the issue to him, he kept asking questions, i thought he wrote everything down, then he said he would transfer me to kindle support to get a ticket created.I asked to talk to kindle support in the US, and Sean said he "can't promise" anything. After some more wait time, I ended up back in India with kindle suport, and was asked what the problem was. I about lost it at that point. 39 minutes into and I was back at square one, just a lot more ticked off than before. Anyhow, replacement coming on Thursday, and that will be my last try. I've about had it with this return game. They very obviously know that there are issues, because both Shawn and then the last person I talked to, seemingly had a list of issues in front of them, and found the one that said "very noticeable color difference from top to bottom" and "cream top" while they were talking to me.

Surprise device on doorstep ... Cause.. Why would you stick in in the very roomy mailbox if you can throw it onto the front steps instead?
Anyhow, later I received another KV. I had originally ordered two, and that one just arrived. It also has the same hue issue and a pinprick pretty much in the center. The others have pinpricks as well, but at least not in the middle of the screen. That second one was supposed to be a present, but finding two KVs with acceptable screen will be near impossible - one is bad enough.

A few things found out:
1) You can circumvent the lenghty set-up process by restarting the device.
2) It appears that a KV cannot be used without it being registered to your Amazon account, for which it needs to be connected to a Wifi network. After you start it up, if you try to open a book, it will take you back to the setup screen and force you to connect to a Wi-Fi network, and you cannot proceed. No way to cancel out. There is no home button, so no way to get back to the home screen. The only thing you can do is restart. This brings you back to the setup screen with only the option to "Get started". If you are not within a wifi network you can access at least for set-up, you pretty much can't use the KV at all. I believe that's new for kindles?

Wow, that sucks on so many levels! The CS run around, the bad replacement deja vu, and the WiFi required for setup.

My replacement crashed during the setup while taking me through that stupid tutorial! First Kindle crash/hang I've ever had too. So far it hasn't happened again though. Glad you figured out how to circumvent that stupid tutorial!

I sure hope they get you a good one this time around.

[sparklemotion]

So sorry, xendula.

[Hypernova]

Originally Posted by xendula

2) It appears that a KV cannot be used without it being registered to your Amazon account

Wait. Maybe I misunderstand something but I had been using the KV without registered for at least two days before I connected to the wifi for the first time because I want the dictionary. It did ask me to connect, but when I cancelled the wifi popup there is an option to skip and I had read a couple book just fine (again without dictionary, etc.). The setup screen never popup again afterwards.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by Hypernova

Wait. Maybe I misunderstand something but I had been using the KV without registered for at least two days before I connected to the wifi for the first time because I want the dictionary. It did ask me to connect, but when I cancelled the wifi popup there is an option to skip and I had read a couple book just fine (again without dictionary, etc.). The setup screen never popup again afterwards.

Interesting: I observed this on both of the latest KVs I received today. There was no option to cancel "connect to wifi" on my devices, and there is no back button, plus the page press buttons do not work, nada.

I could turn on the devices, skip the set-up via restart (keep power button pressed, then select restart), but when I tried to open a book from the home screen, e.g. the user guide, I could do it a few times, then would be prompted with the set-up screen that I could not cancel/back out of, that next asked me to access a wifi network. There was no way around this on my two devices I tested. The only thing I could do was do another restart, but then I was caught in the same loop. It's not a problem for me, because I always use my devices registered and I use whispersync and whispersync for voice so much, but I know that there are some mobilereaders who prefer not to connect their ereaders to the mother ship (store systems).

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by xendula

Interesting: I observed this on both of the latest KVs I received today. There was no option to cancel "connect to wifi" on my devices, and there is no back button, plus the page press buttons do not work, nada.

Same here. Thought maybe I missed something after reading Hypernova's post. My experience setting up 2 different KVs was identical to yours

[frogette]

Originally Posted by pghaworth

the "cat pee" color.

I had one, which color reminded me very much of tobacco stained white walls (I'm an expert in the subject, I've been a chain smoker for quite a few years before I kicked the habit). I don't know if it was that much more yellow than average, because I had no way to compare it with another model. Never used it much, partly because I disliked the pronounced yellow hue, partly because the thinner fonts looked so unpleasantly ill-defined.